Athletics slugger Khris Davis had his arbitration hearing yesterday, as Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports first tweeted, and the results should become known later today. The 29-year-old Davis was somewhat quietly a nice addition for the A’s, hitting .247/.307/.524 with a career-best 42 home runs in 610 trips to the plate. Oakland submitted a $4.65MM figure in arbitration, while Davis’ camp was seeking $5MM (as is shown in MLBTR’s Arbitration Tracker). While the difference in figures seems largely trivial to most fans, there’s obviously a notable difference to Davis both this year and moving forward, as a higher 2017 mark will bode better for future arbitration raises. For those interested in the team side of the matter, I spoke to multiple GMs and assistant GMs about arbitration from the team angle a couple of years ago.
A couple more notes on the AL West…
- Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle reports that the Astros have set hearing dates for their remaining three arbitration cases. Collin McHugh, who filed for a $3.85MM salary and was met with a $3.35MM counter from the team, is set to go to a trial on Feb. 10. Utility infielder Marwin Gonzalez ($4.2MM vs. $3.25MM) has a hearing set for Feb. 14. Setup man Will Harris ($2.3MM vs. $1.95MM), meanwhile, is slated for a hearing on Feb. 17. MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart writes that the Astros still expect to avoid a hearing with at least one of those players.
- Rangers center fielder Carlos Gomez brought assistant hitting coach Justin Mashore to his home in the Dominican Republic for a one-week refresher on the alterations the Rangers made to his swing this past August, writes Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News. Mashore and Texas hitting coach Anthony Iapoce both worked with Gomez to balance out his swing in an effort to see pitches a bit longer and to cut down on some of the wild hacks he’s been prone to taking at various points in his career (especially in his time with Houston). After hitting .221/.277/.342 in parts of two seasons in Houston, Gomez came to life with a .284/.362/.543 batting line and eight homers in 33 games with the Rangers late last season. The 31-year-old Gomez re-signed with Texas on a one-year, $11.5MM contract earlier this offseason in hopes of replicating that production over the course of a full season and re-entering the market next winter with a much stronger platform.
Ex-Cubs instructor Anthony Iapoce getting it done in Arlington.
If Carlos Gomez had hit like that all season, we would have made the playoffs.
Can’t scape goat one guy. You didn’t really have one quality SP other than 80 IP out of McCullers last year
The Rangers have great coaches, but don’t underestimate the support system in Arlington where the clubhouse led by Beltre encourage their teammates rather than rag on them and pressure them to perform.
I think this is where Cutch really misses Jeff Bannister. He hasn’t been the same since Bannister left the Pirates.